My Walking Stats: Notables of Exercising Twice a Day

I am SO glad to see that I'm not the only parent struggling so hard with the distance learning for my kids' school! Thank you so much for commenting and sharing your struggles with it, too. I was feeling SUPER overwhelmed yesterday and really disappointed in how things are going. (Eli was marked "truant" from two classes today--I was there when he signed in!) Like I said, I hope that they are just working out the kinks now and things will get better in the next week or two.

While I was walking today, I was thinking about how familiar all the routes are around my house (there are only so many streets to walk). And it got me thinking about my walking stats, or just interesting things about my walks (things I've seen, money I've found, etc.) So I decided to write a post on it!

I started 75 Hard on July 20th, so I'm halfway through Week 8--I'm on Day 53. Here are some notables from the last 53 days of walking 45 minutes twice a day, every single day. I haven't missed a single workout! (I've done a few bike rides in lieu of the walking, but for this post, I'm just focusing on the walking.

Numerical Stats:

• Earliest walk: 5:03 AM (this was on the treadmill right before we left for a 10-hour drive up north)
• Latest walk: 7:23 PM (again, on the treadmill--likely, I was procrastinating)
• Longest distance walk: 3.66 miles (this was a walk/jog on the treadmill; my longest of simply walking was 3.34 outdoors)
• Shortest distance walk: 2.22 miles 
• Longest duration walk: 1:08:17 (3.34 miles)
• Shortest duration walk: 45:02 (2.57 miles)
• Highest average heart rate: 146 bpm (this was during my fastest walk)
• Fastest average pace: 14:17/mile
• Fastest mile: 13:55
• Slowest average pace: 20:37/mile
• Slowest mile: 20:56
• Average number of miles a day: 5.3 miles
• Average number of minutes a day: 94:02
• Total number of miles walked: 261.93 miles
• Total duration walked: 3 days, 5 hours, 35 minutes!

One of my favorite parts about going for walks is finding money. I pick up every coin that I see--it's like a treasure hunt! Since July 20th, I've found $3.25 while out walking. Whenever I find a coin, I tuck it under the shoulder strap of my sports bra, haha. 

The most I've found on a walk since I started 75 Hard is $0.63 cents. It was kind of funny... I was walking along and saw a bright shiny quarter in the middle of the road. Score! I love finding quarters. Then a street over, I saw another shiny quarter in the middle of the road. This actually made me wonder if perhaps somebody who lives nearby is doing my Cookies Summer Challenge and left quarters out for someone to find. Hmmmm?

I've seen lots of animals: the usual cats, dogs, rabbits, squirrels, etc. I've seen groundhogs, muskrats, deer, bald eagles, hawks, cranes, and other birds, snakes, turtles, frogs, geese, ducks, and even a black bear (the bear was up north). And the most unusual to me--something I've never seen up close in the wild--a bat! Unfortunately, it was dead in the middle of the road. While it may be gruesome, I took a photo of it because I found it so interesting.

I've been rotating through shoes--up to four pairs at one point! (Clockwise from top left):

Saucony Triumph 4.0 (newest)

Brooks Ghost 9 (second oldest)

Saucony Triumph 2.0 (oldest but with very few miles)

Altra Escalante (second newest)

I'd been wearing the Ghosts model for YEARS, but when I stopped running and was wearing Converse Chuck's all the time, I thought I'd better find a more neutral shoe with less support when I started to walk. I bought the Altra's, but those are zero-drop (which is a big change from the Ghosts) and I started alternating them with the Saucony Triumph 2.0 shoes that I got in 2016 and rarely wore.

I discovered the Triumph's were super comfy and minimized my ankle pain, so I looked online for more. I couldn't find the 2.0 version ANYWHERE in my size (10), so I bought the 4.0's on eBay (new in box). They are very cushiony, but I don't like them as much as the 2.0 version, which is a bummer. They are tighter on my heels and if I don't rotate shoes, they give me blisters.

I've worn out my Ghosts, pretty much, and will probably need to drop those soon. The Triumph 2.0's are toast--the bottoms have gotten totally worn out. So now I'm down to the Altra's and the Triumph 4.0's. And those have quite a few miles on each of them already. I didn't realize how quickly the miles would add up as I started walking.

Finally, here is a very long calendar with all of my walks (and a few bike rides) on it. I didn't include the bike rides in the totals.

It's fun to see all of this in one place. Especially looking at all the workouts on the calendar like that!

And no, I'm not done. I'm going to continue for a total of 90 days, so I'm more than halfway done now.

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The School Year Nightmare

Even though summer technically isn't over for a couple more weeks, it feels like it's officially fall now that the kids are back in school. Yesterday was their first day. (Eli is on the left, Noah is on the right)

I can't say anything other than that it felt... weird.

I didn't feel the slightest bit prepared because of everything happening with COVID and the different school schedules--going to school 2-3 days a week and learning from home 2-3 days a week.

(Yes, Eli is taller than Noah... and if he wanted to, he could be a BEAST if he started working out. The kid is solid muscle.)

It was Eli's first day of high school, and I feel bad that it wasn't "normal", or even fun. There were only about 10 freshmen there! (Some kids are learning from home full-time, and the rest are divided by days of the week.) He said that he doesn't have any friends in his classes.

Noah's taking college courses now, so his day gets over at 10:55! Still, he said his first day back "sucked". Apparently there are two classes that are the same course but at different times and he went to the wrong one. He sat through the entire class before he realized what had happened.

I hoped today would be better, but it was kind of a disaster. Neither of the kids had to go to school today, but they did have to attend their classes online. Eli has a class every hour, so he had to sign into a new class every hour. However, the new system is using Google Classroom, which I didn't even know was a thing.

The teachers clearly aren't familiar with it, and it's new to the kids and parents as well. I assumed the "online learning" would consist of a live stream of their teachers lecturing, and then an assignment of some sort to do at home. However, Eli only had two teachers "attend" the classes, and it wasn't an online lecture. They took attendance and posted an assignment and that was it!

Eli's assignments consisted of a WORD SEARCH (he's in high school!) and a math worksheet with equations like "-6 + 2= ?" I'm hoping that his teachers are just using those as a way to test out the system and not as a learning tool...? Eli was sitting at the dining room table all day long at his computer and for what? To "learn how to retread tires"? (Forrest Gump reference ;) )

I'm certainly no computer genius, but I do know how to do quite a bit due to my blog. And it still took me a good hour to figure out how to have Eli do the word search online. (We eventually had to take a screenshot of it, open it in Microsoft Paint, and then highlight the words from there... ugh!). I'm also a Mac user lover and having to use the school's Chromebook was another learning experience. 

I know this isn't the teachers' fault--they are as new to this as we are. But I can totally see this school year being a disaster. I'm a stay-at-home mom with a relatively decent knowledge of computers; what about the kids who have parents that both work full-time and don't know about computers?

I know that I'm not the only parent feeling this way, but today I felt SO overwhelmed and just generally upset. Noah is doing fine with his Zoom classes (I wish Eli's school would do the same!) but I feel like it's up to me to make sure Eli gets through this mess. 

He had a Spanish I assignment but he hasn't learned any Spanish yet! Thankfully, I took four years of Spanish and I can at least help him with the basics, but how can kids be expected to do assignments without having lectures?

I wish I could say that I handled this graciously, but I did not. I had a small tantrum (and then I wondered if I was possibly being live-streamed to Eli's class? Haha! Not that I used any curse words or anything... ahem) and then I bought a bag of chips from the convenience store and ate them repetitiously. For no reason other than the fact that I was overwhelmed and stressed out.

I had been doing SO good at breaking the bad habits, but the emotional eating is something I'll probably forever have a problem with. I don't even know why I did it--I felt bad about it the entire time I was eating the chips. 

I still did my walks today, though. It's funny--I've really started enjoying them to the point that I look forward to them. (Yes, that's a big deal for me!) They're an escape, of sorts. I hope that someday, I will feel that they are a better escape than Dill Pickle Lay's, but for now, they are a close second.

I even took Joey with me for my second walk--it was a misty day and I knew the asphalt wouldn't be too hot on his paws. (I don't usually take him in the afternoons--not only do I enjoy the time alone, but I also know that it'd be hot for him.)

I cleaned the garage this morning (after Emily and I worked on her Little Free Library, it was pretty messy) and right after I finished, my brother Brian came over with Luke and Riley (my nephew and niece). I asked his opinion about the front porch because we really need to do something about it soon, so he helped me figure out a plan for that. And then I showed them the garage. I felt proud when Brian complimented the windows that I'd framed in :) 

For the rest of the day, however, I wore sweats, sans bra, and read a book. I was interrupted occasionally to help Eli with this online stuff, but other than that, I just wanted to forget about "real life" for the time being.

I'm hoping that this week is just about working out the kinks in the online learning, and that next week will be smoother. I know that I'm not the only parent feeling overwhelmed, and I know that Eli's not the only student feeling lost, so at least there's that. 

Tomorrow, I've decided, if I am feeling overwhelmed, I will go for a walk instead of eating chips (or whatever else). I've been working too hard for the last 50-something days to screw it up now by stuffing my face for emotional reasons.

For any other parents (or teachers!) going through the same thing right now, I feel for you! <3

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RECIPE: Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This is the pie that my friend Emily and I made over the weekend. Years ago, she ate it at a restaurant called Red Ball Jet Cafe in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and she loved it. She thought it was so amazing that she begged for the recipe before the restaurant (sadly) went out of business. And they were so kind to pass on the recipe.

I met Emily in 2016 (a blog reader turned friend!) and she's mentioned the pie several times. Each time we planned to make it, we got busy doing other things (like making dozens of jars of homemade jam!). Anyway, this pie is delicious! It has three layers: an Oreo crust, a chocolate ganache, and finally, a whipped cheesecake-like peanut butter layer.

(Hey, I never said it was healthy...)

This recipe actually makes two 11-inch pies, which is an uncommon size (most pie plates are 9 inches or so). Emily and I used store-bought chocolate cookie crusts, which are smaller than your typical pie crust--and it actually made three pies!). So, depending on how much pie you need, you may want to cut this recipe in half for one good-sized pie.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

Crust:
    5 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
    7 oz. butter, melted

    In a medium mixing bowl, combine the crumbs and butter until uniform and press into pie plate--bottom and sides. Bake at 340 F for 5 minutes.

OR you can use pre-made pie shells--they sell chocolate cookie ones similar to graham cracker crusts.

Chocolate layer (similar to ganache):
    1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
    12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

    In a small sauce pan over medium-low heat, stir the condensed milk and chocolate chips together until the chocolate is melted. Spread the mixture along the bottom and sides of the pie crust(s).

Peanut Butter Filling:

    4 cups heavy whipping cream
    12 oz. cream cheese
    2 cups powdered sugar
    3 cups smooth peanut butter
    1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

    In a mixer, beat the heavy whipping cream until it forms soft peaks (the consistency of Cool Whip). Spoon into a metal bowl and place in fridge.

    Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the peanut butter and vanilla to the cream cheese mixture and beat until well combined. Mix in whipping cream to peanut butter mixture until uniform. Spoon over chocolate layer in pie shell. Chill for a minimum of four hours before serving.

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The Power of a Determined Mindset

When I saw a video post by my friend Adam on Facebook yesterday, I was completely stunned. Speechless. Just completely in awe.

I've known Adam since high school and we've remained good friends through all these years--he even stood up in my wedding. Lately, we've been talking a lot more. He's been really into challenging himself and he's the one who turned me onto talked me into trying 75 Hard.

He's also the one who told me to read David Goggins' book, 'Can't Hurt Me' (Amazon affiliate link). David Goggins is on this whole other level of toughness--I can't even fathom the amount of discipline that he has developed from years of sheer HARD WORK. And I'm starting to see some of this in Adam. It makes me really excited for him!

He is currently doing 75 Hard, and he's about a week ahead of me (I'm starting Week 8 today). He's made it much more challenging to himself than I have, however. 

To back up, though...

In February, he did the most insane challenge I'd ever heard of up until that point--he did a 4x4x48 challenge (Goggins' idea). That meant to run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours straight. Yes, you read that correctly. Insane! And he did it.

He didn't just do this once; he did it again in June! (And now he wants me to do it with him next month, even if we just walk instead of run...)

Adam bought a used mountain bike from a friend so he could use it to bike to work as well as exercise. On July 28, Adam tried out his new wheels:

Then on August 4th, out what what seems like nowhere, he walked 42 miles in one day!

Adam decided to do a charity event where he would have to cycle 250 miles in September (I'll include the info for that at the end of the post). So, he got started...

I have to do a side note here: This is super ironic and funny. Even through high school, Adam would talk about being strong and always working on being stronger by challenging himself. He later moved into a house that he knew was on Adams St. (coincidental enough) but then realized that it was on the corner of Strong Blvd! So he lived on the corner of Adams-Strong. Crazy, right?! (That's what the hashtag refers to.)

Also, when he mentions a "cookie jar" it's another reference to David Goggins' book. It's a way of tucking away little accomplishments to pull out when you need to feel strong to get through something.

I've saved the most insane accomplishment for last (although I'm sure this will not be *his* last!). He posted this video to Facebook yesterday, leaving me stunned.

(Note: When he mentions a triathlon, he's talking about the cycling portion of an IRONMAN.

Anyway, I hadn't planned to do an entire post about Adam, but I just had to brag about him a little. He's been SO encouraging to me while I do 75 Hard and definitely trying to push me out of my comfort zone. When I was feeling depressed and antisocial in the winter, he kept asking to get together and when we finally did, I felt so much happier.

He's an amazing friend and literally the strongest person I know--his mental determination is approaching David Goggins'. 

I don't usually post links to other people's charities because I get SO many requests to do so. Adam did not ask me to post this, but I'm going to anyways just in case anyone feels like they want to contribute to his cycling goal for September.

It's called the Great Cycle Challenge and it's to fight kids' cancer. Here is a link to Adam's fundraising page.

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Little Free Library, Board Games, and School

Today was another fun day with Emily!

Last night, we were browsing through movies on Netflix to see if we could find something good to watch. I saw Magic Mike was on there and we both discovered that neither of us had seen it. So I thought it might be a fun girl movie to watch.

It was SO boring! We both considered quitting it halfway through, but we wanted to see what all the hype was about when it first was released. Toward the end, I even started nodding off a little. But we both gave it two thumbs down. I still couldn't even really tell you the plot--it didn't seem to have a point to it.

Anyway, we got up early this morning (Emily is an early bird for sure), and she wanted to come with me on my walk with Joey. We walked my "usual" route (I walk lots of different ones, but I have a particular go-to route that I choose most of the time).

When we arrived back at the house, we got to work in the garage right away on the Little Free Library project. We still had quite a bit to do and I wanted to make sure it was ready for her to take home today.

Unfortunately, the directions on the plans we chose weren't very clear. And two of the cut sizes for the door frame were listed incorrectly. Thankfully, there was a lot of leftover plywood so we could cut some in the correct sizes.

We also had to modify the door a little by running a horizontal board across the center of it (which I think looks more decorative anyway!) because I couldn't find plexiglass in 12x16 size. I could only find 8x10. So we put the decorative board across to cover the seam where the two pieces of plexiglass will come together (Emily is taking it home to paint the whole thing before adding the plexiglass and attaching the door).

I wasn't thrilled with the plans that we used; not only because of the mistakes, but because it used mostly wood glue to hold it together and no screws. Wood glue is great and stronger than wood itself; but when doing butt joints, not so much. So I ended up using glue and then using a pin nailer to both reinforce it a bit and hold the pieces together while the glue dried. In retrospect, I wish I'd have made pocket holes to reinforce the butt joints.

When it came time to put the roof on, we ran into another problem of two of the wood cuts being too short. (We measured and cut correctly, but the cut list had the wrong measurement.) After correcting that mess, we glued and pin nailed the roof (and then I added a few screws for reinforcement). 

I used outdoor caulk to seal up all of the seams and wood filler in a few spots. Then I sanded the whole thing and now it's ready to be primed and painted! Here is what it looks like now... unpainted and without the door attached. You can see the door in front of it--the plexiglass will go behind the little "window" shapes. I'm excited to see the final result! Emily took it home with her today, so she'll send me pictures when it's done.

After we worked on the library (I keep wanting to call it a birdhouse!) we played a game that Emily brought. Noah and Eli played with us, too. The game is called Codenames, and I'm surprised I'd never heard of it. It's pretty popular on Amazon! 

It's very hard to describe, but it was really fun. You have to think outside the box a bit and I love clever games like that. As soon as we were done playing, I ordered it on Amazon ;) (affiliate link). There is also a version called Codenames Duet (affiliate link). The Duet version is for two people to play; the original is for partners.

I really want to have a game night! It's been a long time since we've had friends over for games.

My kids start school on Tuesday. It's a complete nightmare, the "organization" of the whole thing. They are doing hybrid learning--some at school and some at home. Eli is scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, and some Wednesdays in school and Noah is scheduled for Thursday and Friday in school (and Wednesdays on alternating months). Noah also has a college class on Thursdays, but that's entirely online for now. 

The whole thing is so confusing to me! Every single one of their teachers has sent me emails with websites, logins, passwords, pin numbers, schedules, classroom instruction--whether in class or on Zoom or another platform). NOTHING is uniform and I feel totally overwhelmed.

The teachers don't even specify in their emails which grade or school or student they are referring to, so I'm not sure whose teachers are Eli's and whose are Noah's without comparing the emails to the kids' schedules which I don't even have a real copy of yet. I am really worried that I'm going to screw something up for my kids. 

I'm going to have to buy a planner and some folders to keep everything organized so that I don't mess it up. I think Noah will do fine, because he's very well organized and self-disciplined. He also knows computers really well. But Eli is going to be a challenge. I'm going to have to help him with his schedule and learn how to use Zoom and the online work they are supposed to do. (I don't even know how to do it yet! I'm hoping we get instructions on Tuesday.)

I know that everybody is doing the best they can (and I feel so bad for the school administrators who had to organize all of these schedules! THAT must have been a total nightmare. I just hope that once things get started, I won't feel so stressed out about possibly messing things up.

Anyway, having Emily over this weekend was a great distraction from all that, but now it's back to reality! Tomorrow is the calm before the storm ;)

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day tomorrow!

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Pie and Wood Shop

I woke up at 5:00 this morning--so early! I wanted to make sure to have time to clean my house and get in my walk before Emily got here. She lives in western Michigan and it's a 2-1/2 hour drive. She is staying the night, so I wanted to prepare Noah's bedroom for her to use (washing the bedding, vacuuming along the floor boards, dusting, etc.)

I really love having company, even if only because it gives me a deadline to deep clean things ;) 

Emily has a recipe for a great chocolate peanut butter pie that she'd been telling me about for a few years, and I'd never tried it before. So I told her we'd definitely make it today. I'm so glad we did, because it was delicious! 

She ordered it at a restaurant called Red Ball Jet Cafe in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but the restaurant went out of business. She begged them for the recipe and managed to get it before they closed. It has an Oreo crust, a chocolate ganache layer, and a fluffy cheesecake-like layer on top. (I'll post the recipe soon.) So good!

When Emily arrived, we put together the pie right away because it needed to chill for four hours. So while that was in the fridge, we went out to the garage to work on the Little Free Library project. Emily had never used power tools before, so it was fun showing her how to use the table saw and the miter saw.

Emily is 21 weeks pregnant, by the way. She's having a baby boy! :)

We got a lot of it done today. Tomorrow, we have to finish the door (adding the plexiglass) and make the roof. After we were done working today, my nice and neat garage looked like this... haha! 

When we were done in the garage, we went for a walk. I took her to the access road through the marsh (where Joey loves to play). The weather was SO nice today! When we got back, Noah cooked dinner on the grill and we had the pie for dessert. Yum :)

Tomorrow, we'll go for another walk and then finish working on the library. I hope the weather is just as good tomorrow!

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Building Plans

It was fun having Jerry write my blog post yesterday. I swear he doesn't listen to anything I say, because he totally skipped out on my day from the hours of about 12 to 8 pm!

Today, I decided that I absolutely MUST do something about our front porch before it gets too cold outside. We had no luck with the concrete, so I thought maybe I'd build a wood one. I'm very intimidated at the thought of digging post holes and mixing my own cement. 

I decided that I'm going to do a temporary fix right now to last us until next spring when we can come up with something more permanent (my brother Brian said he'd help). I'm going to take apart the porch we have right now all the way to the posts and joists. Then I'll replace all of the floor boards and the steps. At least it'll be safe enough to last through the winter!

I took measurements and listed the supplies that I would need to buy. I need a LOT of boards and I wasn't sure if I could fit them all in my car. I was measuring my car and doing the math about how well it would fit (it would be very tight!).

Tomorrow, my friend Emily is coming over and she wants to build a Little Free Library.

The photo above is the one we are going to make. Here is a link to the plans.

I thought that would be a super fun project! So, once I listed the supplies for the porch, I figured out the supplies for the library box. I always hate buying plywood because I have to have it cut down in the store in order to fit in my car.

Efficiently mapping out the pieces takes forever, but I found a tool online that allows you to map out your cuts on plywood (there are lots of pieces I need to cut out). I can't believe I never did that before! It takes away a ton of work. From that, I found that I could have Lowe's make two cuts and it would fit in my car. Then I'll do the rest of the cuts at home.

Once I got to Lowe's and found the decking lumber I was looking at online, it was definitely not what I liked. Most people buy 8- 12- or 16-ft boards, and I only needed 6-ft boards. I knew I wouldn't be able to fit the 8-ft boards in my car (I needed 22 of them!) so I just decided to hold off on buying them. Hopefully I can borrow my dad's or my brother's truck to pick them up. 

I was able to get the materials for the library box, however, and I'm excited to work on it!

Well, I am going to get to bed so that I can get up early and clean the house before Emily comes over. I'm excited to see her--I haven't seen her since before COVID!

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In Jerry's Words... (Katie's day)

This is Jerry. Katie thought it would be fun for me to write this post. I think this feels like I'm one of those courtroom typing people. From here on out this post will be written in my words and not a dictation. Punctuation and grammar be damned. 

Katie has already told me about her day. And, it's been pretty impressive to say the least. She got up a little after I went to bed. I know this because I can hear her in the bathroom everyday getting ready to go for her morning walk with Joey. And I know she's ready because I hear the clickety-clack of Joey's ridiculous nails on the floors.

After she got back from her walk she threw herself into mom-mode. The kids have been wanting to have quesadillas for lunch so she cooked up 3 pounds of ground turkey for them to be able to have quesadilla's for the next couple months week. 

After cleaning up she saw that the pots and pans were a total mess. To be fair, it seems like we have 3 different pans for each size and they were all thrown into a cupboard. Also, totally my fault because I try to clean everything after dinner (she cooks, I clean), and I made this mess. Don't tell her though. So, she reorganized them and made everything so much easier to find... until I mess it all up again. LOL.

She had completed a couple small but very important tasks. The kids will be starting school in a couple days and Noah had gotten an unfavorable schedule. He was kind of unhappy with the days he was going to be going to school so she emailed the principal to see if there was a way to change his schedule around. 

Also, something that she's a little passionate pissed off about, she had to contact Amazon regarding some questionable ethics regarding one of its sellers. I had recently purchased waterproof phone cases for Eli and I. When opening the packages there was was a card on the inside asking for a 5 star review in exchange for a $10 Amazon gift card. The cases are fine but buying her 5 star review?... eat it.

After this she finished the 2nd walk, the one she always complains about. She found $0.28 so I don't know what she's complaining about... SCORE! She wanted to get it done early because I had the night off work. Nothing sounds better than me, her sexy stud-muffin (her words, not mine), having the day off and us just spending time together watching movies and snuggling on the couch.

I watched Katie scroll through the movies on Netflix, trying to find the perfect movie for us to watch. It reminded me of watching the TV Guide channel scrolling down the screen for hours when I was a kid. We are the total opposite when it comes to movies. She is a total B-movie person and I have to have big-budget action or actors not moonlighting as Uber drivers. She finally settled on the newest episode of Intervention. Who would've guessed?

So, as I'm sitting here writing this we are watching another episode of Friends and she's snapping pics of me, which I'm sure she'll include in this post.

She's cackling in the corner of the couch, almost in tears trying count all my chins in a picture. I must say, I'm surprised she let me do this. She's always giving me shit for the lack of proper english or punctuation on my part. I admittedly suck at it but it shows a lot of love and trust on her part. She's amazing and I love her to death. And, I hope she reads this before she posts the quad-chin photos of me!

---

Katie here... (As promised to Jerry, I won't comment on the above! Hahaha. Except that he totally skipped out on everything I did between 12 and 8-ish.) I had to include this photo of Jerry's "Circle of Life" moment. There was a mosquito on the ceiling, and Chick LOVES to catch bugs. So, Jerry lifted Chick up to the ceiling to try to catch the mosquito! Hahaha. By the way, I promised not to edit the post that Jerry wrote, so as hard as it is for me, I'm just going to say good night ;) 

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The How and What I Eat While Intermittent Fasting

I've gotten several questions lately about how and what I eat while doing intermittent fasting, so I thought I'd post some more details here. I always hate writing about my particular food intake because there are always people who "scold" me for eating carbs/sugar/not enough vegetables/etc. 

I am a firm believer that everybody should eat what makes THEM feel best; what works for them both mentally and physically. We are all trying to find out that perfect balance, but that's just it--none of us is perfect. I would never tell someone how I think they should eat!

That said, I am very happy with the way I eat (and with what I eat) so I am not looking for advice or criticism about what I eat. I never delete comments--even the ones that are mean just to be mean for no reason--but for this post, I won't publish comments that are rude and critical of my diet. They just aren't helpful.

You can totally disagree with what and/or how I eat, and that's fine. But the purpose of this post is just reply to those that are curious about how I've been working the intermittent fasting into my life. 

So, that said... here are some details about how I've been doing intermittent fasting for the last six weeks.

First, I have to say that I LOVE this way of eating. This is definitely a lifestyle, something that I could see myself doing forever. Jerry feels the same way, so it's great that we're on the same page.

There are lots of different methods of intermittent fasting, and I won't get into them all here. I choose to do a 20:4 ratio of fasting to eating. That means I fast for 20 hours and then eat my day's worth of calories within a 4 hour window. 

Lots of people do their fasting periods differently, some allowing certain beverages or bone broth, but I do a "clean fast"--meaning I only drink plain, unflavored water. (To understand more about this and the purpose behind it, I suggest reading 'Delay, Don't Deny' by Gin Stephens. -Amazon affiliate link) I also allow plain black coffee or black tea, but I very rarely drink those. I stick with water.

If you're considering intermittent fasting, I'd recommend reading the above book to learn about the different types of fasting. What works for me may not work for you. And what works for you may not work for me.

I usually choose 4 pm to 8 pm as my "eating window". If I'm very hungry at, say, 2:00, then I might have decaf coffee with heavy cream and sugar to fill me up and then I'll cook dinner a little later at 5:00 or so. And then I'll close my window at 6:00. Otherwise, I plan to cook dinner to eat at 4:00. 

I make large, filling dinners to ensure that I'm getting enough calories for the day. I make a lot of the same dishes that I always have--I just look for ways to add calories. I cook with more fat, I add some side dishes I normally wouldn't (roasted cauliflower with garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese, for example), and I eat bigger portions.

A common misconception of intermittent fasting is that the weight loss comes from eating less calories--if you're only eating one meal a day, for example, people think that of course you're eating less calories and you're going to lose weight. That's not necessarily true. I highly recommend Dr. Jason Fung's book, 'The Obesity Code' and another called 'The Complete Guide to Fasting', (Amazon affiliate links) which explains this very well.

My weight hasn't dropped a ton--in fact, I didn't lose anything for the first two weeks! But my body composition changed and I lost inches. I was able to wear clothes I couldn't before, but my weight was only down a couple of pounds.

So anyway, I want to make it clear that I am eating a "normal" amount of calories. I haven't calculated, but because I know calories like the back of my hand, I would guess that I eat anywhere from 1400 to 1800 calories a day.

On most days, I break my fast with my dinner. I'll eat a filling meal and usually I am too full to want anything else. (I'm not stuffed, because I hate that feeling of being super full, but I definitely feel like I've had enough.)

After dinner, I will usually have decaf coffee with cream and sugar--and I sip this for probably about an hour. Sometimes I'll make dessert for the family (I made a peach crisp with ice cream last week) so I'll skip the coffee and eat the dessert a couple of hours after dinner. 

Most of the time, I don't eat all throughout the entire four-hour window. I usually have the one meal and then a dessert or snack if I feel I want it before my window closes.

As far as what I eat... I literally eat anything that I want to! I have found that while intermittent fasting, my tastes change. When I haven't eaten all day, I look forward to a filling meal. I don't crave sweets (at least not until after I've eaten "real food". Interestingly, I crave healthier foods. Once I've satisfied that craving, then I may or may not be interested in dessert. If you know me at all, I used to live for sweets! And I still love them... but I have to be in the mood for them.

All of that said, I went grocery shopping today so I made a list of dinners to have in the upcoming week. These are nothing special... just things that are in my go-to homemade recipe book. Most of the recipes are on my blog, so I'll link to them. (Depending on how filling it is or if I am getting in enough calories, I may make a side dish to go along with them.) I cook a lot of skillet meals or one-pot meals, so I mix a lot of stuff together rather than serve the typical meat/potato/vegetable type of thing.

Ground Turkey and Cabbage in Spicy Peanut Sauce

Hawaiian Fried Rice

Keema with Rice

Beef Stroganoff
(I'll have to post this recipe in the future--I made it today and it was delicious!)

Also, there were a lot of mushrooms in this, but hardly any of them made it from the stove to the bowls. I love mushrooms! The rest of the family doesn't like them, so I just picked them out and ate them while I was cooking ;) 

Moroccan Meatballs Over Orzo 
(This is shown with rice, but that was likely because I didn't have any orzo on hand)

Shipwreck Skillet Dinner
(I haven't made this before, but I found it in a cookbook today; I'll post the recipe if it's any good)

Sausage, Peppers, and Corn Hash with an Egg on Top
(I think I forgot to add the corn on the day I took this photo! But the corn is one of the best parts.)

And that's it--a week's worth of dinners. These are all foods that I made before--before I lost weight, while I lost weight, after losing weight. 

If any of you do intermittent fasting, I'm curious about your method and how you like it! Please feel free to share :) Likewise, if you have questions, I'd be happy to do a Q&A post later. Although I'm not sure how much more I can really say!

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RECIPE: Chicken Broccoli Lo Mein

I have been craving spicy Asian food lately and I just can't get enough! I haven't been going to the store very often, and we're getting down to bare pickins' now, but yesterday I managed to make a dish that was SO good it's going to be a regular from now on.

I had broccoli, I had chicken, and I had spaghetti... so I made a sauce out of the go-to ingredients of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, sugar, and Sriracha. Extra Sriracha to make it nice and spicy! The whole family loved this and requested I make it again.

I hate food prep, so I did this a little at a time yesterday. Cooked the pasta. Cut up the chicken. Cut the broccoli and carrots. Made sauce. It was all ready to put together by the time I actually decided to cook dinner.

I wanted to use up all of the chicken, so this made an enormous amount. You could certainly cut the recipe in half.

Here is a printer-friendly version!

Chicken Broccoli Lo Mein

Ingredients:

16 oz. box of thin spaghetti
1 Tbsp. olive oil, or other cooking oil
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks
4 cups of raw broccoli florets
A handful of baby carrots, sliced (or one large carrot)
2 garlic cloves, minced (or 2 tsp jarred, minced garlic)
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated (I don't use ginger very often, so I typically buy the stuff in the tube and keep it in the refrigerator)
1/2 cup soy sauce (I use San-J Tamari)
3 Tbsp. rice vinegar
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. Sriracha (I'd start with 2 tsp. and add more to taste)

Directions:

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions, stopping when it's al dente. You don't want it to get mushy. Run it under cold water to stop the cooking and to keep the noodles from sticking together. Set the pasta aside.

Prepare the sauce: Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, and Sriracha in a small bowl and stir well so that the sugar dissolves. Set aside.

Add olive oil to a very large skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the chicken and cook until chicken is almost cooked through. Add the garlic, ginger, carrots, and broccoli. Reduce heat to med-high and cook, stirring, until the broccoli softens and chicken is cooked through.

Add half of the sauce mixture and stir to make sure the sauce covers everything. Add the pasta and the rest of the sauce (you may have to transfer everything to a large pot, because it really does make a huge amount). Toss the pasta with the chicken and veggies so that everything is coated well.

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